Fish Room Control needs

[C. Alan]

I have been lurking in the group for some time, and like a lot of people, I have been somewhat disappointed in the lack of progress in the project. I realize that this is not because the project lacks people, it just lacks the people with the correct skills. I wish I had a solution for this, but alas, I do not. So I will end my rant...

On to the question, I am no longer into salt water aquarium, but I still maintain a small fish room with about 9 tanks in it for fresh water fish. Specificly, I keep south american dwarf ciclids (apistrogrammas). Most of my tanks are in the 10 to 30 gallon range.

This is what I would like to see in a controler. It should be based around a PC, and have an interface that would allow for a large number of probes to be attached to the interface. For my application, I would need to be able to connect 6 ph probes, and 6 temperature probes to a single interface.

The software would most likely work by IRQ polling of the devices, and the interface returning values for each probe at polling time. The program could be set up to log the data, and display it graphicly over time.

To be honest, I think the software end will be much simpler than the hardware side. Now...If we could just find some hardware geeks...

--C. Alan

 

[Mr_Quality]

If Omega doesn't have what you're looking for, I don't know who would. But it aint gonna be cheap.

Mike

 

[C. Alan]

Omega is a great source for probes, and they do have logging probe setups. But at $350 a tank, It would be a bit cost prohibitive, plus I would not have the computer logging I wish to have.

 

[Mr_Quality]

Omega also offers PC based data acquisition software that you can connect to stand-alone pH meters that have serial ports. I don't know if a $50-$100 pH meter will have a serial port and I don't know if WInWedge will support 9 serial inputs. There may be other S/W that uses USB or ethernet links, you'd have to browse around. Here is the link to WinWedge. There are others as well.

GL,
Mike

 

[alligator]

Well, this forum is still open, it's just that not much is accomplished. Needs better leadership, better volunteers, etc.

 

[Mr_Quality]

Well, this forum is still open, it's just that not much is accomplished. Needs better leadership, better volunteers, etc.

Whoa alligator! What are you talking about? Where did this comment come from? IMO, this is one of the best (and my favorite) forums!!!

Mike

 

[alligator]

Actually, I was only referring to the fact that I had hoped we would have a completely finished design that everyone could build/use after about 6-12 months worth of work. Thus far, we have bits and pieces, and it's not been adopted or tested by many participants.

That said, I've built at least one thing I've found in this forum, and I'm considering another.

Keep them coming!

 

[NH_Reef]

http://www.andovercontrols.com

 

[tzenda]

are you still lookin for a controller for your fish room, i install building automation systems and 9 inputs is not tough for one controller. depending on the setup it can give you full logs and alarms. it can be hooked up to a computer and give you realtime info.

 

[Trevor S]

I like the ethernet idea, wonder if someone could come up with something like a "print server" where it can poll data, across the parallael port and stream it across ethernet, or via webserver on the jetdirect.

 

[stugray]

I have a working proto of a Rabbit4010 board. The dev kit costs $100 and has everyting for a simple project.

The RCM4010 is ethernet capable, and in my config, I have 4 channels of PWM control ( can use for LED moonlights, fan speed, & Icecap 660 dimming ).

In addition to the 4 PWMs, I have 36 other I/O that is user configurable & a working 2 Row LCD Display.

I have it working and ready to share, just been lacking the motivation to finish the documentation & post the code......Anybody got any motivation to share?

Stu